The Academic Relations Team is responsible for offering IT students and faculty members free access to software, for enhancing knowledge and skills by providing curriculum materials and other learning opportunities, for helping students achieve their dreams by organizing an international competition, and finally for assisting last year students through career resources and job opportunities at our customers and partners. With this blog we want to inform you on our latest initiatives. Enjoy reading and stay tuned!

Learn how to build a high quality app, that's visible in the Store, gets downloaded and receives good ratings. Introducing: the ultimate checklist on promoting your Windows 8 and Windows Phone apps ! (Also available as PDF document: right here .) It all starts with a quality app. But how can you make sure your app is good quality? Use this checklist! Your app is written…now what? Now it’s time to make sure your app is 100% visible in the Windows Store. Check out our handy tips & tricks...

Windows 8 is a Windows re-imagined designed for both touch and keyboard. It is a mobile cloud-powered system which makes it easy to keep people connected and across multiple devices while leveraging the power of all the new capabilities of today’s hardware, such as GPS, 3G, NFC,… It’s made easier, but now that you have more powers, you also have greater responsibilities! It means you’ll discover new APIs, new design principles, … But one of the most important thing you have to know about Windows...

Join us in Brussels, Genk, Kortrijk or Mons on March 27 th for the 4-locations Belgian Windows 8 first Superhackathon . Code, build, eat, drink & win. Experts will be on site to help you with the last phase of building your first Windows 8 or Windows Phone 8 application. We come to your cities (4!), we bring the experts (many!), feed you with breakfast, pizza, coffee (lots!) and Red Bull, honor you with prizes and rewards (countless!). End goal: Get to Windows Store, have fun doing it, go home...

Are you in the middle of your exams? Did you not find time yet to pass the Challenge quizzes? Then we have good news for you. More time ! You have untill February 15! We are extending the deadline for the Imagine Cup Challenge quizzes! Not 15 January but February 15 is the new deadline . So if your team was interested in competing in our Windows 8 App Challenge, Windows Azure Challenge, or Windows Phone Challenge , you've got an extra month for at least one member of your team to beat...

Do you have a great idea for an application and would you like to turn it into reality? Or are you simply curious and eager to learn new technologies? Kick start 2013 with a series of free training sessions by the Microsoft Innovation Center in Mons: Discovery Sessions #1 15/01/13 Windows 8 22/01/13 Windows Phone 8 29/01/13 Azure Mobile Discovery Sessions #2 30/01/13 Windows 8 05/02/13 Windows Phone 8 11/02/13 Azure Mobile Advanced Sessions 13/02/13 Windows 8 19 & 20/02/13 Windows Azure 22/02...

Are you betting on getting a new Windows Phone for Christmas? It may be a safer bet to take part in a new contest we’re launching today for tech students … the Windows Phone StudentsAppsVenture ! The amazing Nokia Lumia 800 may be yours soon – we’re giving away 5 devices . How to win? 1. Submit 3 apps in the Windows Phone Store (before January 31, 2013). 2. Time is money: the 5 fastest student developers to submit, will each receive a Nokia Lumia 800! 3. After you’ve successfully published your 3...

Howest Digital Arts and Entertainment (DAE) is a leading academic institution in game development . With the current shift in the gaming industry, from standard retail to instant downloadable deliveries, they decided to take advantage of the new reimagined Windows 8 , as this is the ideal platform, running on several device types, with touch or standard mouse and keyboard. Several student games – built in XNA – have been ported via Monogame to Windows 8. Today, at the launch of Windows 8, DAE has...

Eat. Drink. Code. Join us at HUB on November 10 th . Belgium is part of the app revolution! By registering, you’ll be joining thousands of developers worldwide as we build apps for the next generation of Windows. Microsoft app experts, MEET-members, developers and trainers will be available on-site to assist your learning and coding. Learn about building Windows Store apps today – download the info, tools and resources you need now. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10 th 2012 08:08 – 00:00 HUBrussel Warmoesberg...

The European SharePoint conference (Copenhagen, 4-7 February 2013) organizers asked SharePoint enthusiasts to show their creative side by producing a short 2 minute video on what unique talents they have, SharePoint or otherwise! We are delighted to announce that the winner of this competition is "Think SharePoint Team" from Howest ! Their prize? Free tickets to attend the SharePoint conference in Copenhagen! >> Check out their winning video. The team: Ann Deraedt, Steven Debels,...

Join us next week (October 8, 2012) at Microsoft Belgium for a free full day training for advanced Windows 8 coders . You’ve finished your first app or are about to finish it and you’re ready for the next level? We have the perfect training you have been waiting for. This ‘advanced only’ class will cover advanced topics such as login, services and error handling. The following topics are covered during this session: • Process lifecycle management: suspension manager, handling suspend, resume • Making...

The world’s premier student technology competition, Imagine Cup , is off and running! New competitions for 2013 are open , taking our first steps towards St. Petersburg, Russia , where the Cup will culminate in the Worldwide Finals in July, 2013. This year’s formula will be slightly different: - a series of BE webcasts are coming up to give you some more ideas on what you could build - a local final mid-April to ensure the best Belgian teams have a guaranteed place at WW Finals - no strict...

Start the new academic year in style! Join us at our offices in Zaventem on September 28 for the last app-a-thon before Windows 8 hits the market (October 26). Team up with your best friend to build a killer team, come alone, sign up with a group of students, whatever you want! Hands on. Code. Build. Shine. Totally Windows 8. When? 28 September 2012 Where? Microsoft Belgium Leonardo Da Vincilaan 3 ...

We’ve recently announced on Twitter that the DreamSpark pages have been re-imagined. Those who have tried to download in the meantime software from the DreamSpark pages will certainly have noticed the differences. It is not only about a new design, but more importantly a series of new features and functionalities have been included. Have a look at the most important changes! For students With the new color branding, the different academic users will be guided to the right information: a. DreamSpark...

With General Availability of Windows 8 coming closer and closer (October 26!), now’s the time to finalize your app and get it into the Windows Store - open now for all developers, including student developers . At Microsoft we pay special attention to students – in this blogpost you’ll find information on the Windows Store specifically for students. Price : · Via DreamSpark.com , students can obtain an online a registration code. Via this code, students get free access to Windows Store . The free...

The re-imagined Windows 8 will come soon, and people will love playing games on it.
Getting your game into the Windows 8 store prior to the launch, will bring you some key benefits:
With windows 8 in the full spotlight, your app will gain maximal visibility
You as developer can make the game available, find out whether your game is having success worldwide and use this information as starting point of your further professional career.
Microsoft & Howest DAE
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We hope you have already enjoyed a bit of sunshine this summer! We sure did at the first Summer App-a-thon in Blankenberge with a full day of coding & fun topped with a great show of fresh Win8 Metro apps! Grasp the first-mover advantage too and make sure your app is in the Windows Store by the time Windows 8 hits the market on October 26th. Develop an app NOW and get a €100 Connections Gift Voucher! Millions of people around the world use Windows every day. Windows 8 gives you the opportunity...

The Imagine Cup Grants program supports a number of winning teams solutions to go to market and realize their potential to solve a critical global problem. I just attended the Imagine Cup Grants session during one of the learning session at the worldwide finals in Sydney. Here is a quick summary here for you.
In short, the program offers you funding and support for your Imagine Cup project. You receive the money and Microsoft will support you for the next 3 years. During the program you get connected...

It's summertime! Time for all of us to throw ourselves into something new, fun and rewarding. With Windows 8 around the corner, now is the time to start building apps! Will your app be the next big thing? Grasp that first-mover advantage and make sure your app is in the Windows Store by the time Windows 8 hits the market. We're here to help you get your app ready with a bunch of support tools ranging from online training to App-a-thons, App Clinics and App Excellence Labs. Follow the 4 steps to getting...

2 Belgian teams made it to the Imagine Cup worldwide finals. Within this blog, you can read about their daily adventure.
JULY 10 - D-DAY
Follow the award ceremony online in the live streaming - 8.00-11.00 Belgian time : http://icsocialmediateam.com/live-stream/
JULY 9TH - CULTURAL DAY
Catching up some sleep or going out for sports to destress and take some time to enjoy the city. Team Make a sign went to the taronga Zoo (as they had the bidge climbing on july 8th), team Hotfix went...

Three students of Haute Ecole de la Province de Liège were welcomed yesterday afternoon by the French speaking Minister-President Demotte, because of their place in the finals at Microsoft’s international contest, Imagine Cup. The three developed a way to teach sign language using consumer electronics. Beginning of July they’re leaving for Sydney Australia to defend their project against students from all over the world.
Imagine Cup is a worldwide contest by Microsoft, challenging...

The Microsoft Imagine Cup brings together students from all over the world and asks them to use their creativity and passion for technology to help solve the world’s toughest problems. Back in May you could read that 2 of our Belgian teams made it to the finals in Sydney . The People Choice Award will go to the team with most of the votes, and therefore, we ask you to participate now - so that these talented people have maximal changes to defend our national colors in the World wide competition...

The word is out: on July 12 we’ll be organizing the first of our Summer App-a-thons. And it’s going to be a special, seaside app-a-thon, at the Belgian coast in Blankenberge . What could be more inspiring for building great Metro-style apps than the sound of waves crashing into the beach, ice cream and a beautiful sunset! We’re building upon the success of the coding night at the Windows 8 Developer Day and have a hackathon to build cool Metro-style apps. So team up with your best...

Yesterday, Microsoft announced previews of new Windows Azure services that help developers build applications that connect data to users across public and private clouds, take advantage of VHDs and deploy scalable websites quickly and cheaply. Today, Scott Guthrie will host “Meet Windows Azure” to introduce these new services. And on Monday, as part of TechEd North America and broadcast live online, Scott, along with Mark Russinovich, Quentin Clark, and Bill Staples will host “Learn Windows...

Windows 8 Release Preview has been made available last week, representing another important quality milestone in the road to Windows 8 General Availability (GA).
In this post we provide you with the must-know information around what and where to download the bits, the tools and information on how you can count on our support in taking your app to launch.
Windows 8 Release Preview: downloads
For Windows 8 downloads and ISO files you can go to http://preview.windows.com
For developer...